The Central Bankruptcy Court has ordered TOT Plc to take over home phone maintenance service from provincial fixed-line operator TT&T to manage customer complaints.
Starting from Dec 1, the state telecom enterprise will take charge of repairing telephone equipment and dropped wire maintenance services, said Djitt Laowattana, a TOT board director.
The court ordered TT&T to enter the rehabilitation process in Nov 2008, and approved the rehabilitation plan in Dec 2010. The court confiscated TT&T's fixed-line infrastructure assets in March this year.
TT&T provides fixed-line telephone services in provinces under a 25-year concession with TOT that will expire in October 2018. The company has been allocated 1.5 million phone numbers to operate.
However, TT&T has around 300,000 customers currently, according to an industry source.
The number of TT&T employees has been cut to around 600, from almost 4,000 early this year.
In addition, TT&T has shut down its customer service centres and call centre service, leaving existing customers without service.
Mr Djitt said the court wants TOT to take over maintenance in order to ensure service continuity as TT&T has been struggling financially for years.
The court ordered TOT to take responsibility for two jobs: repairing or replacing transmission equipment, including dropped wires when a customer calls for a service, and maintaining TT&T's transmission system to ensure service continuity after the concession expires.
Drop wires are used to connect a subscriber's distribution point to external overhead distribution points.
Mr Djitt said TOT does not make any money from providing the services as it is court-ordered.
Complaints are spreading over social media condemning the TOT for benefiting from the failure of TT&T.
"The public don't know that we were ordered by the court to take the responsibility," Mr Djitt said.
Some comments urged people to stop using TT&T's service because the company is closing down its business by the end of this month, two years earlier than the concession entails.
"These comments are totally untrue and confuse the public," he stressed.
However, he acknowledged that some of TT&T's customers who cut off their network services are still forced to pay the company's monthly service fee of 107 baht each month, because TT&T no longer has call centres and customer care service.
Mr Djitt said TT&T customers, who are unhappy and unsatisfied with their existing services, can migrate to TOT's fixed-line network.
TOT president Monchai Noosong said TOT can efficiently provide fixed-line services across the country, thanks to its nationwide network and 400 customer service centres.
TOT has over 3 million fixed-line subscribers on its own network.